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The Legendary Mr. P-3 Orion, Jay Beasley
Naval Aviation News, December 1977
The legendary Mr. P-3 Orion, Jay
Beasley, displayed the many faces of an orator recently when he was the guest of honor in the Jacksonville VP community. He spent a week doing the same thing he did for 23 years prior to his 1975
retirement - conducting postgraduate courses in the art of flying Navy patrol aircraft.
Mr. Beasley began flying in 1932. Before joining Lockheed in 1952, he was an instructor and charter
operator, civil service ferry pilot for the Army Air Force during WW II, an executive transport pilot for a petroleum company and a United Airlines pilot. At Lockheed he flew as a test pilot in the P-38
Lightning, PV-1 Ventura Electra, Constellation, P-2 Neptune and the P-3 Orion. As a Lockheed test pilot, he has instructed more than 5.000 Naval Aviators, 22 of whom have since become admirals. His
personal log book shows more than 22,000 instructional landings in the P-3 alone. During one of his talks he was asked about a particular point in the Natops flight manual. He replied, "I suppose I
could answer that question, considering I wrote the book." Mr. Beasley was the 11th person designated as an Honorary Naval Aviator.
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